Democratic Illinois Rep. Chuy Garcia’s hand-picked replacement ran uncontested in the Chicago-based district’s Democratic primary Tuesday night due to what some critics have labeled a coronation effort by the outgoing congressman.
Patty Garcia, the representative’s chief of staff of no relation, won the primary without opposition, according to the Associated Press (AP), and is all but guaranteed to win the November general election in a seat that Kamala Harris won by 28 percentage points in 2024. She filed her paperwork to run for the seat in the final hours before the filing deadline, only for the incumbent to withdraw from his reelection campaign days after the deadline had passed. (RELATED: Nearly Two Dozen Democrats Defect, Vote To Rebuke Fellow Dem For ‘Election Subversion’)
Rep. Garcia’s move caused outrage among members in the House of Representatives, prompting a wave of criticism from his own party. Democratic Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez called the move “election subversion” and introduced a formal rebuke of Garcia. Twenty-three Democrats voted alongside nearly all House Republicans to rebuke their colleague over the succession.
VoteHub projects Patty Garcia to win the Illinois Democratic primary for U.S. House District 4. pic.twitter.com/e5r42PqjUT
— VoteHub (@VoteHub) March 18, 2026
“You don’t get your cake and eat it too,” Gluesenkamp Perez said on the House floor in November. “If you’re not going to run, you don’t get to choose your successor no matter how noble the work you have done beforehand.”
“If we fail to hold our colleagues accountable for this subversion of elections, we own the consequences,” Gluesenkamp Perez added at the time. “Americans bled and died to secure the right to elect their leaders. We can’t expect to be taken seriously in the fight for free and fair elections if we turn a blind eye to election denial on our side of the aisle.”
Rep. Garcia, 69, had represented a heavily Hispanic seat since 2019, but worked in Chicago-area politics for over 40 years, mounting two failed mayoral campaigns in 2015 and 2023. Garcia had told the Chicago Sun-Times in November 2025 that he assisted his chief of staff in collecting enough signatures to earn her spot on the primary ballot while he was still slated to run again to represent the district.
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